Scandis get Sensational with Mubi

22 May, 2012 | By Wendy Mitchell

The new subscriber offering from Mubi, which has launched in Turkey two months ago, will next launch in Norway on July 17, with Sweden and Denmark following in the weeks after, with Finland and Iceland in the autumn.

The new subscriber offering from Mubi, which has launched in Turkey two months ago, will next launch in Norway on July 17, with Sweden and Denmark following in the weeks after, with Finland and Iceland in the autumn.

This comes as Mubi revealed more information about its new partnership with the Nordisk Film & TV Fond to spotlight Scandinavian titles worldwide via new project Scandi Sensations.

Thomas Vinterberg, whose Festen is available on Mubi and whose Competition title The Hunt is backed by the Fond, is open-minded about VOD and other new platforms. “Festen in particular doesn’t deserve a bigger screen than that, it’s made for phones,” he joked of his Dogme hit. “Of course I want people to gather in a cinema and share opinions, but we’re struggling to get people to see our movies and to get paid for it. Most people do see movies online, most people are pirates. So it’s very important with initiatives like this, especially when they are curating and making choices for buyers. It’s interesting…we need to follow the audience. People might want to watch movies in their cars, we have to obey that and follow that. The net offers a huge possibility and also a huge challenge.”

Hanne Palmquist, CEO of the Fund, said: “I really wanted to work with Mubi for Nordic films to get out and get experience of how we get Nordic films out on VOD. I think we need to experiment in these new platforms.”

Palmquist said that the partnership was for one year and after that, “then we’ll look at it again and see if there are reasons to continue.” She was bullish on VOD in general: “I think we need to experiment in these new platforms.”

Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel said: “We will choose the best of Scandinavian films and show them all over the world.” (Mubi works with rights holders such as TrustNordisk and Scanbox to get rights to films in each territory.) Other territories could follow in coming years.

He noted that the launch of the new subscription model depends on “how young the population is, how media savvy they are, and their propensity to pay online. Scandinavia and Turkey are the top two” territories for those criteria now.

After that, the rollout continues to Poland, Russia, Mexico, Brazil and Korea. He noted that Germany and the UK were tougher markets to crack because of Pay TV windows.

The new model presents a low-cast package — for as little as €1.70 per month, subscribers get a new film each day.

Cakarel was realistic that some films will always be cinematic experiences: “for about 100 films a year, it’s much more profitable to have them theatrical. If I was a studio I’d want to go theatrical on those. But other than those 100 or so films, everything else will be available day-and-date in the next decade,” he said.

Works with more than 300 local distributors, such as Hopscoth in Australia and Artificial Eye in the UK.

Mubi is working with Stella Artois in the UK on a promotion, where packs of the beer sold in supermarkets get a voucher for a Mubi film; Stella pays around £2 for every view, and Carefel notes there are about 3m packs being sold.

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